


Ice Skating

by soft_but_gremlin



Category: Mumintroll | Moomins Series - Tove Jansson, 楽しいムーミン一家 | Moomin (Anime 1990)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Ice Skating, can be read as both mymbleticky and snorkmyden if you squint, just the girls hanging out without the boys
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-25
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 13:15:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22397680
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/soft_but_gremlin/pseuds/soft_but_gremlin
Summary: Snorkmaiden wakes up in the middle of winter, and is not very happy about it. Little My isn't hibernating this year, and would be absolutely delighted to teach Snorkmaiden to ice skate, whether she actually wants to learn or not.
Relationships: Lilla My | Little My & Snorkfröken | The Snork Maiden
Comments: 2
Kudos: 12





	Ice Skating

Snorkmaiden was not pleased.

The reason for this, of course, was that she’d woken up in the middle of winter. She’d been having such a lovely dream, too, one where she and Moomin had been looking for shells together on the beach, and Little My was there but for once she was being quiet and even helpful. Snorkmaiden had just found a clam that contained a beautiful purple pearl in the dream when she’d woken up, and was grouchy about being denied the conclusion to that story.

She spent about twenty minutes after that trying desperately to go back to sleep, with no success. So, unhappily, she got out of bed and went downstairs. She decided she’d make some pancakes, and hopefully after that she’d be sleepy again.

As she finished flipping the last pancake, there was a knock on the door. Snorkmaiden wondered who on earth would possibly be calling in the dead of winter? Everyone in Moominvalley knew that snorks hibernated all winter!

When she opened the door, it took all her willpower not to sigh.

“Hi Snorkmaiden! Are you cooking something? I want some!” Little My asked, letting herself in. 

Snorkmaiden shut the door to the cold winter air. “What are you doing here?” she asked.

“My sister kicked me out so she could spend some time knitting with Too-Ticky, and I saw smoke coming from your chimney so I decided to come over,” Little My said, making her way toward the smell of food.

“Oh, I didn’t know your sister could knit!” Snorkmaiden said.

“I’m not sure she  _ can _ , actually,” Little My called out, already making a bunch of noise in the kitchen. “Too-Ticky comes over to knit with her a lot, but I never see any new cozies or scarves or anything! I think my sister just watches Too-Ticky knit and pretends that she’s doing some as well!”

Snorkmaiden entered the kitchen to find that Little My had already taken half the pancakes and was working on devouring them. Grouchily, she said, “They’re probably using any excuse that would get  _ you _ out from under their feet.”

“Well next time it won’t work! I’ll stay there and knit with them!” Little My said.

Snorkmaiden didn’t bother to give that a response, and served up her own pancakes. The only noise for a few minutes was Little My scraping the fork against the plate and eating like she hadn’t been fed all winter.

As soon as the last bite of pancake was down the hatch, Little My asked, “Do you want to go ice skating with me?”

Snorkmaiden wrinkled her snout. “But it’s  _ cold _ outside!”

“Well yeah, you can’t go  _ ice _ skating if it’s too warm for  _ ice _ . You have winter fur, you’ll be fine!”

“I don’t have ice skates, and even if I did, I don’t know how to use them,” Snorkmaiden admitted.

“There’s a spare pair in the Moomin bath house that’ll probably fit you, and I can teach you to skate!” Little My said. “And if they don’t fit, you can just slide around on the ice with your paws!”

Snorkmaiden could tell Little My wouldn’t let her go back to sleep until she went skating with her. “Fine,” she said. “Let me get a scarf and a hat.”

Ten minutes later they were out the door. Snorkmaiden did not like the snow, but she could admit that there was some beauty in the way that Moominvalley sparkled in the sunlight. Only a little bit, though. Mostly, she thought it was much too bright and much too cold and that she would be better off in her darkened room under the warm blankets.

Little My raced down to the bath house. Snorkmaiden followed slower behind her, though not very much slower, as her stride was almost twice as long as Little My’s. She reached the bath house right as Little My came back out of it, triumphantly holding a pair of skates that were almost as big as she was.

“Try them on! Try them on!” Little My said impatiently as she handed them down to Snorkmaiden. With a sigh, Snorkmaiden put one on her left foot. To her surprise, it fit fairly well. She and Moomin must be nearly the same size. Idly, she wondered if that meant that she had big feet, or he had small ones.

“Come on!” Little My said, jumping down from the bath house and scurrying towards the water. “If you keep dilly-dallying it’s going to be dark by the time we get a chance to skate!”

“And that would be  _ such _ a  _ shame _ ,” Snorkmaiden muttered sarcastically. Nevertheless, she followed the small redhead.

When she got to the water, Little My had already gotten her own skates on and was starting to scoot herself onto the ice. Within moments, she was speeding around like ice was her natural habitat. Snorkmaiden, however, could not help but think of how much heavier she was than Little My.

“Are you sure it’ll be safe for me?” she asked nervously.

“It’s February! The ice has got to be at least two feet thick by now, you’ll be fine! Come on!”

Snorkmaiden sat down in the cold snow, out of excuses, and started to put the skates on.

At least it didn’t look difficult. She’d be skating circles around Little My in no time. She scooted herself onto the ice, the way she’d seen Little My do it, and then tried to get to her feet.

The skate slipped right out from under her, and she fell on her backside, hard.

“This is stupid!” she grouched. “Snorks aren’t made for ice skating!”

“Oh come on!” Little My said. “You can’t give up after only one try!”

Snorkmaiden  _ wanted _ to give up after one try, but Little My was right. How many times had her brother failed at his experiments, and yet still refused to give up? If she quit now and Snork ever got wind of it, there’d be no end to his mockery.  _ Or _ Little My’s. Best just to suck it up and deal with whatever teasing Little My would give her now and try to learn to skate until the sun went down.

This time, she decided to get both her skates upright before letting either of her paws off the ice, so she’d have two stable points of contact to keep her from slipping again. It seemed like a good idea, and she was on her feet quickly enough. Now, all she had to do was push herself into an upright position…

Apparently she shoved too hard, because in a moment, she was flat on her back again. She sighed in irritation.

“Try standing up on the ground and then walking onto the ice,” Little My offered.

Snorkmaiden scooted back to land, and from there, tried to stand up. This time, she actually could do it. Excited, she ran out onto the ice.

As she landed on her back yet again, she was starting to think that this was some kind of punishment for something bad she’d done in the past year. She wasn’t sure for  _ what _ , exactly, but she must have wronged Little My somehow.

“You almost got it!” Little My cheered. “When you get on the ice, though, don’t walk, just scoot your feet so the skates stay in contact with the ice. And lean forward and bend your knees a bit, it helps with balancing.”

Snorkmaiden groaned in irritation. But slowly, she got up once more. Back to land, stand up, and  _ slowly _ scoot onto the ice.

Amazingly, it worked. She was now standing up. “Okay, now what?” she asked.

“Now you skate!” Little My said. “Just like this!”

Snorkmaiden watched. Little My shifted her weight to one foot as it slid forward, then lifted her other foot and shifted her weight as she put it down to slide with that one. It didn’t seem too hard.

A few falls later, and she felt like she wasn’t exactly getting the knack of it. 

“You’re doing great!” Little My said enthusiastically. 

Snorkmaiden thought that Little My was probably lying to make her feel better. Little My wasn't known to lie much, but Snorkmaiden knew that nothing she was doing could be considered _great_.  


“Give me the end of your scarf,” Little My demanded. “Maybe it’ll be easier for you if I’m pulling you along.”

At this point, Snorkmaiden expected that nothing could make it  _ worse _ , so she took off her scarf and tossed one end to Little My, keeping a firm grip on the other. To her surprise, Little My didn’t immediately bolt off to fling Snorkmaiden snout-first onto the ice, but rather warned her before moving, and gently pulled her along. Not worrying about propelling herself across the ice meant that she could focus on more important things, like balancing and watching her feet. Surprisingly, Little My’s idea was actually...helpful.

It seemed that Little My could actually be quite nice when she wasn’t feeling tricksy.

After a while, Snorkmaiden actually found herself having  _ fun. _ Sure, there were still falls, but it was a source of giggles now, not irritation. She could see why Little My enjoyed ice skating, and it was almost a shame that she’d probably never get to do this again, since she always hibernated through winter.

The pair skated round and round in circles, starting slow but eventually building up speed until one of them fell (usually Snorkmaiden, but even Little My once or twice!). After Snorkmaiden was fairly confident in figuring out how to get moving, Little My started teaching her how to stop, and that was an entirely different ballgame all together. Little My quickly got very good at dodging, because Snorkmaiden fell a  _ lot _ while learning to stop, and it only took a few times for Little My to realize it was very uncomfortable to be fallen on when you’re very small. They started to make a game of it: Snorkmaiden would skate towards Little My and try to stop, and Little My would try to dodge when Snorkmaiden didn’t quite make it.

They didn’t even notice how long they spent until they heard Little My’s name get called. Little My screeched to a halt. Snorkmaiden, who was much bigger and also still not very good at stopping, tripped right over her, causing both of them to roll across the ice.

And of course, it had to happen right in front of Too-Ticky and Mymble.

Too-Ticky kept a straight face so as not to embarrass Snorkmaiden any more than she already was. Mymble gracefully hid a grin with her paw. “Are you two having fun?” Mymble asked.

“Loads!” Little My said defiantly. “Way more fun than some dumb knitting, that’s for sure!”

“Snorkmaiden, I thought you hibernated in the winter?” Too-Ticky asked.

“I do. I am,” Snorkmaiden said. “But I woke up today, and Little My wouldn’t let me be.”

“Oh please, you had a lot more fun being out here with me than you would have moping around the house until you fell back asleep!” Little My said.

Snorkmaiden smiled. “I suppose that’s true,” she said.

“Well,” Too-Ticky said. “Let’s get you two back to the bath house and warmed up. You’ve been out here for hours.”

The two girls got off the ice and took off their skates, then followed the two women back to the bath house. Snorkmaiden didn’t even realize how cold she’d been until she was in the warmth again, alternatively reaching for her cup of hot chocolate and then flinching back because it was so hot. Judging by how red Little My’s cheeks and ears were and how she, too, kept flinching back from the hot chocolate, she was in a similar condition.

As Snorkmaiden warmed up, she realized how sleepy she was. Too-Ticky noticed too.

“You need to run along home soon, Snorkmaiden,” she said. “I think it’d be an awful shock for both you and Moomin if you ended up hibernating for the rest of winter in the bath house.”

Snorkmaiden yawned. “Oh, yes, terribly!” she said.

“I’ll walk you back home!” Little My said brightly, sliding off the bench.

“Bring your cups of cocoa with you to stay warm,” Too-Ticky said.

“Little My, make sure you bring the cups back in one piece!” Mymble said sternly.

“Maybe I won’t, just because you said that!” Little My said, though without any real bite behind it.

The two girls headed back out into the snow. The sun had set now, but the snow reflected the moon and they had no trouble making their way to Snorkmaiden’s house. They had finished their cocoa on the way, and Little My took Snorkmaiden’s empty mug to bring it back.

“See you in the spring, I guess,” Little My said, disappointed that the day was over and that Snorkmaiden would be going back into hibernation.

“See you in the spring,” Snorkmaiden said, giving a small wave and opening the door. Then, she turned back. “And Little My?”

“What?”

“Thank you for taking me ice skating,” Snorkmaiden said, with a smile. “I enjoyed it!”

Little My grinned. “And just think, you wanted to  _ give up _ after one try.”

“I’m glad I didn’t.”

The two of them stood for a moment. Then, Little My rushed forward to give Snorkmaiden a hug, and then ran off with a “Goodbye! See you in the spring!”

Grinning, Snorkmaiden went inside. She locked the house up again, double-checked to make sure the stove was off, and went to bed. As she snuggled under the covers, she knew she was going to have nice dreams for the rest of winter.

Hopefully, she’d get to go ice-skating in some of them.


End file.
